Raul Castro's Economic and Social Reforms in Cuba

featuring Carmelo Mesa Lago

In 2007 Raul Castro inherited from his brother Fidel, economic and social-welfare systems in shambles and since then has been enacting reforms to improve both. The lecture will explain the causes of such reforms, their wide discussion by scholars and the press, and evaluate their effects based on Cuban data and other information. Among the key reforms: distribution of unused state land to farmers, dismissal of one million unneeded state workers, expansion of private jobs in self-employment and cooperatives, tax reform, more flexibility for Cubans to travel, and authorization to sell-buy homes. Mesa-Lago is the author of the book Cuba en la era de Raul Castro: Reformas economico sociales y sus efectos (Madrid: Editorial Colibri, 2012), there will be copies for sale and he will sign them.